


Squares (nine fills for a mini-bingo)

by Trojie



Series: Fics for SPNVerse Challenges [8]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Crossroads Deals & Demons, Drabble Collection, Episode: s05e04 The End, Gen, Harvelle's Roadhouse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2013-09-29
Packaged: 2017-12-27 22:49:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 1,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/984528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trojie/pseuds/Trojie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nine fills for the mini-bingo card that was Challenge 25 at SPNverse. Drabbles and double drabbles for following prompts:</p>
<p>MEMORY; PREMIUM; OBSERVE; SCHEDULE; KINDLY; DETAIL; REPORT; JOBLESS; CHANCE</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. MEMORY

It never happened. The white suit, the roses, the future Dean lived through (like a trauma survivor) is gone, except for inside his own head. Sam being used as a bespoke suit just like the linen Lucifer had dressed him in, is only something Dean remembers. Like that makes it less real.

Dean doesn't realise he's been dreading it, waiting for Lucifer to rise, to take away everything they've built back up since then, until Sam wishes him a happy New Year. 

It's 2014 and Dean suddenly realises he's been waiting for the end of the world all this time.


	2. PREMIUM

Everything has a price. Everybody. Every moment. And people are just lining up to be bought and sold. 

Crowley has rules. He doesn't welch or weasel. His contracts are solid. If you make a deal for something with Crowley, you get it. You even get it how you wanted - none of this sneaking around twisting people's words bollocks. 'Be careful what you wish for' is the mantra of someone who doesn't want people to keep wishing. Not of a successful businessman. 

But Crowley _always_ gets top dollar for the things he sells.

Crowley makes deals, not bargains.


	3. OBSERVE

Most people think Ash works heaving crates of beer around, and needs to learn to keep his damn fool mouth shut.

Ellen smacks him when he talks, but she does it with a smile and she lets him drink whatever he likes (which is pretty much everything), and he doesn't talk half as much as he listens, anyway. 

Roadhouse talk is like, 80% good ol' boys shooting the shit and one-upping each other, but there's 20% of it that's gold dust, dangerous, clues. Filtering that, figuring it out? That's his job. Ash isn't a barback. Ash is a goddamn hard-drive.


	4. SCHEDULE

John's problem has always been that he's one step behind his prey. He has to react, because he can't predict. So he plans. 

He doesn't have keepsakes - all he has are his two sons, his car, a photo of Mary. And the journal. 

His mom gave it to him to use when he was old enough to need a day-planner for school, but he never really did - just used to touch the stamped H.W. inside the cover, and wonder what kind of man ordered a carefully-made thing like that and then abandoned his family. 

He uses it now. Writes everything down - all the names, the dates, everything he does and, as far as he can work it out, everything the yellow-eyed demon does. One day he's going to work out the pattern, and then these records? They're going to tell him exactly when and where he needs to be.


	5. KINDLY

It's not all deals and mergers. He's rescued baby birds. Sent orders for Cupids to set up couples. Organised unexpected spells of nice weather for orphanage picnics. All those things do have their place in a perfect world, which is what they're trying to build, after all.

The business deals are for everyone's good. People don't seem to realise that if they did what they were told, life would be easier. Sometimes he has to bang heads together to get people to understand, but he's not a bad person.

Zachariah likes to think of himself as a nice guy, y'know?


	6. DETAIL

Everyone makes such a big deal about being angel or demon, human or monster, but Sam doesn't think there's such a big difference anymore. 

Y'see, Sam's been possessed. Sam's had black eyes and no control. Sam's been a vessel too, and that's no different. Maybe white light and black smoke don't look the same, but they cut your strings the same way, make you become just a voice in your own head the same way. 

Sam's been - _is_ \- human. He's had a soul. He's felt right and wrong and the helplessness of trying to choose between them. Free will, man. He doesn't know if it was worth the taste of an apple. 

Sam's been soulless, too. Sam's been a monster, just instinct and chaos and self-interest, where it wasn't so much _free will_ as _why the fuck not?_ But he's met people, with souls, who were just the same, and demonic joy in destruction and angelic love for purpose all look identical on the inside too. 

So no, Sam can't say he sees a lot of distinction between soul or no soul, grace or spirit. But they do say God is in the details.


	7. REPORT

Garth calls from Intercourse, Pennsylvania (of course he does), where there's a succubus in town. Bobby gives him a crash course in soul-draining lady-monsters down the phone and calls him an idiot. He likes that kid.

Bobby takes a call from Tasha, on a case of her own that's got her tied up for at least a week, about a rugaru in Citronelle. Bobby gets hold of Nat, Earl and Christine (they were in Alabama two days ago chasing a black dog), and trades Christine some Drambuie and a hex-bag for her promise that she and the kids will look into it. 

Ellen calls him for a catch-up and invites him to dinner next time he's out their way, and drops into conversation that she's pretty sure there's a demon makin' deals out on the crossroads outside Duck Hill, Mississippi. Bobby thanks her for the invite and the info, decides to put the Winchester boys on it because they been sniffin' for demon sign in general lately, won't hurt to put a potential informant their way. 

And then Gordon Walker calls him from Ahmeek, Michigan, ranting about the Apocalypse and how Sam Winchester's the Antichrist. 

Bobby puts the phone down.


	8. JOBLESS

War rides into town in a cherry Mustang, and goes home on his shield. Turns out Dean Winchester is more battle-hardened than they expected, after a tour in Hell in the vanguard of souls. Daddy's blunt little instrument has remade himself into a knife.

Famine sweeps in and the population starve and crave, gorge and die. Sam Winchester craves more than all of them, starving for months, gorges like he can't help himself - except even with the taste of power in his mouth, Sam chooses cold turkey over milk and blood-coloured honey. 

Pestilence almost defeats the brothers, but forgets the angel. Castiel is almost tapped out but there is just enough power left in him to cauterise and burn away infection the way he used to drive out evil. Just enough power is all it takes.

It doesn't matter. Three horsemen can be defeated, sent home, no longer needed. But Death will never be out of work.


	9. CHANCE

They say, God does not play dice. 

Well, neither does Dean Winchester. He scams credit-card companies, plays poker, occasionally bets on standing quarter miles against people who think their shitty plastic 90s Camaros can take his baby. Dean makes his money off rooking people, not guesswork.

Sam Winchester uses geometry to hustle pool, plays darts with the same accuracy he throws knives. Counts cards at blackjack just badly enough to avoid casino security. Even resorts to honest manual labour, if he has the time. 

For people who've been so messed up by Destiny, they sure don't like trusting to luck.


End file.
